Locators, contractors and damage‑prevention groups press for law modernization, stronger enforcement and statewide mapping

Jeremy Moore (USIC) and other locating and mapping witnesses urged the subcommittee to modernize Texas's Underground Damage Prevention Act to distinguish routine short‑scope digs from large, complex projects and to give locators the routing flexibility to improve quality. Moore recommended three priorities: expand the timeframe for completing locates (move away from a rigid 48‑hour clock), separate routine tickets from complex project tickets (he suggested restricting a normal ticket to roughly one quarter‑mile and using a separate project process for large work), and require clear white‑lining (excavators marking the intended excavation footprint) so locators can focus markings only where excavation will occur.

Moore testified that Texas handles high ticket volumes (citing an earlier Texas 811 statistic of roughly 4,300,000 locate requests in a prior reporting year) and that the current 48‑hour routing model forces inefficient technician routing and rushed markings. He cited other states that have project‑specific processes and positive response systems for large projects and said Texas could improve safety by offering phased, project‑level coordination rather than a one‑size‑fits‑all locate clock.

Contractors (Utility Contractors Association of Texas, AGC) and the Horizontal Directional Drilling Association described field impacts when facilities are not mapped or not part of 811: strikes cause equipment damage, project delays and sometimes severe public impacts (for example, localized water outages). The Damage Prevention Action Center and Common Ground Alliance emphasized improving mandatory reporting of damages, removing exemptions that reduce clarity about who must be contacted, and creating enforcement mechanisms with meaningful deterrence (some states use peer review boards or state commissions to investigate and recommend penalties).